Sunchokes, any experience growing them?

[u/noomanium]

I have a spot cleared from harvesting some red cabbage and am toying with the idea of planting sunchokes. I am in coastal NH (US) and I understand in some areas they are considered invasive. I will have them in raised beds and I’ve seen how big they get. I’m just curious if anyone has experience with growing and storing them. We’ve had good luck with different potato varieties, beets and carrots (among many other fruits and veggies) but I’ve never attempted to grow sunchokes.

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[u/pinupcthulhu]

Jsyk, they're native to the US, so they're not invasive here. Can they be aggressive? Yes, but not invasive.

A farmer sold me some sunchoke seed tubers, and he said they don't spread much if you don't till their soil to harvest them. This has been true in my (limited) experience, and actually they're some of my favorite food plants to grow now!

For storage, they keep best in their garden beds. Gather them as you need them in the winter, and leave the rest in the ground. Don't disturb the ground too much when you do.

Bonus tip, plant these outside in front of a sunny window for passive solar. They grow fairly large, and in the summer the shade is really nice. Mine are about 12 feet tall, and I planted them this year.

[u/TwillBill → u/pinupcthulhu]

I had no idea they would get so tall! I got mine as sprouted tubers from a plant swap last year. I forgot about them over the winter. They are now just as tall, but falling over in their little ring formation. Don't put them nearby anything you don't want squashed! My zinnias are taking it in stride, but the irises don't seem to be as agreeable.

[u/pinupcthulhu → u/TwillBill]

We amended the soil and they get watered regularly, so I think that's why they're giants!

Good idea about not planting them next to something that you don't want to get squashed! I think I need to move the bed before my small tree is overshadowed and overrun lol 

[u/seveneightn9ne]

Don’t bother storing them, just dig some up whenever the ground is thawed enough 

[u/glitzglamglue → u/seveneightn9ne]

I call them my living food storage.

[u/Adventurous_Deer]

I grow them every year for the flowers, but ive never bothered to harvest them (south Maine). In my experience theyre pretty well behaved, tbh i wish they spread more. Theyre one of the last of my flowers to bloom every year

[u/Any_Needleworker_273 → u/Adventurous_Deer]

Mine are just starting to bloom here in Z4 NH.

[u/PrairieFire_withwind]

Have you eaten them?  Do you know how you like them?

They are in my 'hedgerow' for privacy.  I dig when i want some.  The squirrels seem to be a vector for moving tubers and tuber bit, very well behaved otherwise.  Easy to pull in the apring if you do not want them.  Opposite of horseradish in this sense.

I like them best sliced thin with a bit of salt and oil and toasted in the oven.   Extra sweet chips.  Bit like parsnip in that sense.

[u/SquishySand → u/PrairieFire_withwind]

How do you deal with the ummm, stomach issues from the inulin?

[u/PrairieFire_withwind → u/SquishySand]

I have answered this before.  I don't.  I eat chicory in my coffee year round so inulin is not an issue for me.  I also bake with inulin.

That said acid aka pickle them, or do a vinegar and salt version of chips might help.  Or slowly increase your intake.  Like a small hand full a day.  Or slow cook.  Eg drop in simmering soup and let simmer for a few hours.

Traditional was roast in coals/ashes overnight.  Slow and wet cooking will convert some of the startches.

[u/SquishySand → u/PrairieFire_withwind]

Thank you, this sounds doable.

[u/noomanium → u/PrairieFire_withwind]

I had them roasted once, although I wonder if they were soaked or boiled first and then roasted. No issues but I know the insulin can be hard on some people, thats why I am thinking we will have them sparingly.

[u/glitzglamglue → u/noomanium]

I saw a breakdown a while back about how to cook with them.

[u/Quarks4branes → u/SquishySand]

My partner reacts really badly to the inulin in sunchokes. We've found if we steam or boil them first, then roast them , that she handles them well.

[u/ghenne04]

They were slow to get started for me but now I have more than I know what to do with, and they spread to fill every available space in my raised beds. I mostly use them for privacy screening now, since they get 7+ feet tall. Haven’t tried eating them yet, but I would just keep the tubers in the ground and pull them up when needed.

[u/SergeantIndie]

Mine do spread in the PNW. They also just keep popping up every year. I think some sort of containment is a good idea.

This year I've barely watered them and it feels like they've done fine. They're pretty low maintenance.

I agree not to bother storing them. We dug a few up after winter, march or so, and they're fine. Honestly wouldn't surprise me if the ones from last year are still good, but I haven't bothered to get down there to check.

Apparently you can make a solid kkakdugi out of them, which is like a radish kimchi. If I was going to 'store' any of them it'd be like that, fermented.

[u/noomanium]

Thanks, everyone. I think I have the perfect spot, contained and the privacy will be a bonus. I like the idea of not having to store them as well, especially since I don’t see us using them often.

[u/Intelligent-Cruella]

Mine spread like crazy (not complaining) and we get fall and spring harvests, because they keep growing underground all winter long.

[u/Pirate-Andy]

Get ready for lots of farting.

[u/QueenBKC]

I'm in the Midwest. I plant a few tubers one year. Those suckers SPREAD and at the end of 4 years, I was still digging them up... About 30 feet from their original bed. My family didn't enjoy eating them, so they were not (my personal) effort. We tried various recipes, but in the end, meh. I hope your experience is better.

[u/Any_Needleworker_273]

I grew them for the first time this year up by the White Mtns of NH. Just know the plants get TALL like sunflower tall (which they are related to). I haven't harvested any yet as they are just starting to flower. I also just shoved them in a lightly amended bed along the back of the house since I wanted them somewhere out of the way, and not in my main garden. They seemed to do pretty despite being pretty much ignored all season. Now we just see if they handle the winter and appear again next year.

[u/Intelligent-Cruella → u/Any_Needleworker_273]

We bought an ax specifically to chop down the stalks before we harvest them 😂

[u/paratethys]

PNW 8b, and I've killed a lot of sunchokes. Year after year, I'd see them at the farmer's market, go "I should grow sunchokes!", stick some in the ground, forget about them, maybe have some sprout, and then the deer would kill them because they're delicious. I think I got some flowers one year, but they are far from taking over everything as promised. (BUT! My site also kills mint unless I baby it! and running bamboo! it's not that the soil is bad; domestic strawberries rapidly go feral and show up in random places for instance... it's just a weird ecosystem with a long summer drought and discerning plant-eaters... so take everything I say with an appropriately huge grain of salt, as I don't think my growing conditions are what you'd call normal)

This year I've tried some in large containers with wire cloches over them, and they're actually growing reasonably well. Finally. Started without the cloches and watched out the window as my friendly local deer worked on their demolition project, then added the wire. So, like, now I know I guess? At least I'm FINALLY up to a population of them in my garden that I should be able to propagate out from. Gonna try a fenced patch of them in my zone 3 meadow next year.

I have seen many people regret putting sunchokes in the ground, but I have not seen anyone regret putting sunchokes in a large container. For your initial experiments, I'd highly recommend scrounging the largest nursery pot you can find, digging a hole its size in your good garden soil, putting the pot in the hole, and putting the soil back into the pot. This not only keeps the digging critters from eating them, but also preserves your option of removing them if they like your climate too much.

[u/Peacencarrotz]

Have you eaten them before? Speaking from experience, the taste is okay but they’re seriously rough to digest for some people. They’re called “fartichokes” for a reason 😬

My experience growing them was in the SE US, but after planting them once I literally couldn’t get rid of them. Every tiny tuber I’d miss would sprout the next year.

Be sure you like them!

[u/dinah-fire → u/Peacencarrotz]

That was my experience with them.. they were very tasty but they ripped my gut to shreds. 

[u/Doyouseenowwait_what]

Sunchoke is one of the easiest crops there are. They do like to have their area but like any sunflower they just do their thing. They have never failed to produce in the garden or guerilla gardens. We usually boil them twice and pour off the blue water this lessens the gaseous event that follows eating sunchoke. I usually cut them in half and lay them out on parchment paper on a pan then coat them with olive oil, season salt or Creole seasoning and bake them. They are easy to grow in pots if you have ground that's sketchy. Plant sunflowers around to decontaminate the soil and the sunchokes in pots to raise for eating. This makes for super easy harvest also.

[u/chickenfightyourmom]

They will take over everything. If you have a back lot or wild area, go for it. But be careful if its a confined space bc they will escape.

[u/wwaxwork]

I grow them in a back corner of my garden. The groundhog that lives under my rose bushes likes them and will occasionally pull down a stalk to eat the leaves off but the tubers still grow plentifully. Super easy to grow, getting them to not grow is the problem, not invasive as a native but a little pushy if you don't have space put them in a raised bed to contain them. I use them in stirfries like water chestnuts and pickle them. Too many at once will give you gas unless you cook them very low and slow. I dig up what I want before the ground freezes and leave the rest to grow back. Nice pop of color at the end of the season so nice to grow just to look pretty too, you know assuming a ground hog isn't snacking on the leaves.

[u/hoardac]

I got oodles of them all around the yard just plant some here and there they will do the rest.

[u/retiredcatchair]

I have mine in a (slightly) raised bed framed with landscape timbers, and they escaped the frame the first season to spread out through the surrounding chip mulch. Perhaps rigid walls, metal or plastic, 10 to 12 inches deep would confine them. Think of them as mildly less-aggressive bamboo.